News correspondent Cokie Roberts examines the nature of women's roles, from mother to mechanic, sister to soldier, through the lens of her personal experience. Each essay introduces us to several of the fascinating women Roberts has encountered during the course of her reporting career; Roberts also relates moving anecdotes about the women in her life, like her mother, former congress-woman Lindy Boggs. These intimate portraits of women become the...

When women are told that what is important about us is how we look, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to feel comfortable with our appearance and how we feel about our bodies. We are told, over and over-if we just lost weight, fit into those old jeans, or into a new smaller pair-we will be happier and feel better about ourselves. The truth is, so many women despise their appearance, weight, and shape, that experts who study women's body image...

"The profoundly personal experiences of the women portrayed in these original essays and photographs illuminate a relationship that is awe-inspiring in its power and depth. Some of these women are well known: Cindy Crawford, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Margaret Atwood, and Jamie Lee Curtis all speak of their own relationships in these pages. There is also wisdom to be found in the words of a ninety-six-year-old great-grandmother with her nine daughters;...

Examines the not-so-obsessive attitudes of American middle and high school girls toward fat and dieting, based on three years of interviews that the author, an anthropologist, conducted with lower-middle- to middle-class white, African-American, and Latina girls.

"Librarian Biscuit McKee and library cat, Marmalade, find themselves in the middle of a kidnapping. This mystery explores topics such as green funerals, bipolar disorder, forgiveness, and interpersonal relations between mothers/daughters and sisters. The story takes place in the fictitious town of Martinsville, Georgia"--Provided by publisher.

Grace Holm-D'Angelo is at her wit's end, trying to create a new life from broken pieces. Newly divorced, she is navigating suddenly becoming a single mother to her fourteen-year-old daughter. Emma, resentful about being uprooted from Chicago to LA and still reeling from the divorce, is generally giving her mother a hard time. Then Grace's best friend, Leeza, succumbs to breast cancer after a long battle, and Grace realizes that you don't get a second...

"There is a voice of longing inside every woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good mothers, daughters, partners, employees, citizens, and friends. We believe all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives, relationships, and world, and wonder: Wasn't it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to...

"Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and running her family's Indiana farm for eight long years, ever since her husband, John, fell into a comatose state, infected by the infamous "sleeping sickness" devastating families across the country. If only she could trade places with her older sister, June, who is the envy of everyone she meets: blonde and beautiful, married to a wealthy doctor, living in a mansion in St. Paul. And...

"It started with their ancestor, Oanh, who dared to leave her marriage for true love—so a fearsome Vietnamese witch cursed Oanh and her descendants so that they would never find love or happiness, and the Duong women would give birth to daughters, never sons.​ Oanh’s current descendant Mai Nguyen knows this curse well. She’s divorced, and after an explosive disagreement a decade ago, she’s estranged from her younger sisters, Minh Pham (the...